Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday he’s feeling “encouraged” after meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and American lawmakers in Washington ahead of next week’s tariff deadline.
But LeBlanc also suggested that a new economic and security arrangement with the United States may not materialize in time for U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest deadline of Aug. 1.
“Canadians expect us to take the time necessary to get the best deal we can in the interest of Canadian workers,” LeBlanc said outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington.
“So we are only going to be in a position to accept a deal when the prime minister decides that it is the best deal we can get in the interest of Canadian workers and the Canadian economy.”
Trump has sent letters to multiple nations, including Canada, saying that if no deal is made by Aug. 1, he will impose high tariffs on imports to the United States.
While Trump’s letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney threatened Canada with 35 per cent tariffs, the White House has said the levies will not be applied to imports that comply with the Canada-U.S-Mexico Agreement on trade.
Canada is also being hit with Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles, and will be affected by copper duties that are also expected to kick in on Aug. 1.
The Trump administration has announced only a handful of trade deal frameworks with other nations since the president first threatened his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs in April. Trump this week said his administration made deals with Japan and the Philippines, adding to previous agreements with Indonesia, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.
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While many details of the frameworks remain vague, all of them include some level of tariff – and it’s not clear whether they would shield countries from Trump’s plan to impose further sectoral duties on things like semiconductors and lumber.
LeBlanc said “complex negotiations” are continuing between Canada and the United States and he will be returning to Washington next week.
He described his meeting with Lutnick as productive and cordial. LeBlanc, who was joined in the meetings by Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman, also had face time with Republican senators Kevin Cramer, Roger Marshall, Shelley Moore Capito, Todd Young and Tim Scott.
LeBlanc said they discussed border security and defence issues and the American lawmakers shared a “desire to see more stability and predictability in the relationship with the United States.”
“My conversations have focused on how we share so many priorities of President Trump’s administration that we should be able to figure out together a deal that’s in the best interest of Canadian workers, and obviously they are going to do their side of the table in terms of the American economy and American workers,” he said.
Federal officials have remained tight-lipped about what Trump’s team has said it wants from Canada.
After this week’s trade deal frameworks were announced, Trump boasted on social media that he would only consider lowering tariff rates if countries open their markets to the United States. The president also said Japan would invest $550 billion in the U.S. at his “direction.”
Trump said Thursday that Japan “bought it down basically,” referring to the lower tariff rate.
“I would let other countries buy it down,” he said.
When Trump first threatened Canada with tariffs, he claimed it was due to the cross-border flow of deadly fentanyl. Ottawa responded with a boosted border plan and named a “fentanyl czar.”
Ottawa walked back its digital services tax last month after Trump threatened to halt all trade talks. Carney last week announced measures to stop China from dumping steel in Canada.
Hillman said those efforts help Canada in its ongoing negotiations.
“In our discussion with the American senators this week, the American administration, the measures that Canada has taken on steel in particular… are some of the strongest in the world,” she said.
“And that has been recognized and very much appreciated. So we are making some positive progress.”
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined a bipartisan group of American lawmakers in Ottawa last week. The Republican said Thursday that “we would all like to get to a better place with our trade relationship with Canada” but suggested it’s not likely to happen before Aug. 1.
Canada cannot be treated “as yet one more country that we need to reconcile tariffs on” because of shared economic and national security issues, she said.
“I wish that I could say, ‘It feels good,’ that this is all going to be taken care of before the first of August, but I’m not sensing that,” she said.
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